Tim Keller wrote an influential article on what changes happen to churches when they grow called “Leadership and Size Dynamics.” As a church grows larger (whether that’s growing from 20 people to 50 or 200 to 500) things begins to change:

1. Things become more complex. As an organization grows larger, it becomes more complex. You have more people involved who need to be communicated with. You have more people to coordinate to get things done. The whole enterprise of the church becomes more complex.
2. More decisions are made by the staff, while more on-the-ground ministry is done by the congregation. The staff becomes more in charge of making decisions as the church grows. Yet, at the same time, the congregation needs to step up and do a lot more of the ministry because it is just not humanly possible for the pastoral staff or other staff to keep up with everyone.
3. Connecting people takes more work. When churches are smaller, it is easy to notice new people and get them embedded in deep relationships. As the church grows, this takes a lot more work.
4. Communication takes more work. In smaller churches, word passes from person-to-person. It’s easier to keep everyone in the loop. As the church grows, it takes a lot more work to make sure all the information about what is happening at the church gets out to the congregation.
5. People expect higher quality production. As a church grows, the demand for a higher quality production grows as well. The strength of smaller churches is relational connectedness. Furthermore, in smaller churches, people understand that the “production” will only be a certain level due to the amount of people who attend. In fact, if smaller churches try to mimic megachurches, it often feels inauthentic. When the church grows, however, people expect worship services, and ministries, to be done at a higher level of quality.
6. There is more openness to change but people will also leave over changes. As church grow, there is usually more openness to making changes and trying new things. Some people, however, will leave over those changes because “it doesn’t feel like my church anymore.”
7. Pastors spend more time discipling leaders. When churches are smaller, the pastor can give more time to the whole congregation. He is able to embed himself in the lives of the whole congregation much more easily. However, as the church grows, the pastors only has so much time, attention, energy and emotional bandwidth to go around, so he will begin spending time more with leaders and equipping leaders who will equip the saints for the work of ministry.